Tattletail
?= Tattletail is a video game created by Waygetter Electronics. The game features Furby-like toys called Talking Tattletails, more specifically "Baby Tattletail", which the player must care for while avoiding the pursuit of its recalled predecessor Mama Tattletail. The game was released on Steam on December 28, 2016. Gameplay For the five nights leading up to Christmas, the player must tend to their Baby Talking Tattletail toy by feeding it, grooming it, and allowing him to charge while completing a set of objectives each night. While the Baby Talking Tattletail isn't a threat, it is prone to generating a lot of sound, which alerts Mama Tattletail to your location. While completing a set task, the player must avoid Mama by staying quiet when she is near (indicated by her mechanical noises and glowing red eyes). Failure to do so or going too close will result in Mama attacking the player in a jump scare, sending the player back to a random checkpoint in the night. Players acquire a shake flashlight to navigate in the darkness, but Mama Tattletail has the ability to kill the player's flashlight when they look directly at her. Baby Talking Tattletail is afraid of the dark and is quite vocal about it, creating a necessity to replenish the flashlight by shaking it quickly. However, the flashlight's shake also generates sound, so the player must be careful about when and where to shake. Baby Tattletail also requires periodic recharging of the battery, feeding and grooming; failing to do so will also trigger loud complaints from Baby Tattletail, which in turn triggers Mama to attack. Over the course of the game, a series of "Gift Eggs," presumably laid by Tattletail, are placed throughout the house. Collecting all 22 of the eggs will result in the player achieving the "good boy" ending of the game. Plot The game takes place in December 20–25, 1998. The player wakes up on December 20 to open their Christmas present early. The present is the new furby like toy, Talking Tattletail. After playing with the toy briefly (which involves feeding and grooming while charging it periodically), the player puts it back in its box and goes back to bed. The next night the player finds the same Tattletail in the washing machine, with no indication of how they got there. On Night 3, the player encounters the contents of an old nursery in the basement. In the corner sits the now-recalled Mama Tattletail, along with a cassette tape which can be played using the toy. The tape contains a snippet from a story in a read-along style, including prompts to "turn the page", about how "the children thought that Mama would never find them as long as she couldn't see them" but Mama found them nevertheless. After finding the Baby Tattletail, it asks to be taken to Mama. The player returns to the spot only to find that Mama has disappeared. During each of the remaining nights leading up to Christmas Day, the player is awakened by Tattletail's mounting mischief and demands, including a game of hide-and-seek with a yellow Baby Talking Tattletail. All the while, Mama Tattletail hunts down the player relentlessly. On Night 4, after a lengthy hide-and-seek session with another Baby Tattletail, the player finds a VHS tape; it shows several interchangeable camera feeds from what can only be assumed to be a Tattletail commercial (which is actually footage from the trailer). After some time, some of the camera feeds' names turn red, the lighting changes from blue to green, and trash bags and obscured parts of inanimate or writhing human bodies appear. On Christmas Eve, Baby Tattletail invites the player to the basement to join a "party" with a yellow and blue baby talking Tattletail, plus two more that the player must fetch. After the player gets those, they must get some supplies from upstairs, such as lights, cupcakes and candles. Then the player finds that the Talking Tattletails made a ritual out of the Christmas lights with the VHS tape in the middle, and has begun chanting "No more Mama!"; after rewinding the VHS tape, Mama appears and steals the candles, and the player must find them in vases scattered around the basement. Once the seance reaches its climax, the tape begins to levitate, at which point the player must destroy it. The seance ends, and the player can go back to bed. On Christmas Day, the ending of the game depends on whether the player has collected all 22 eggs laid out across the game: If the player fails to collect all 22 eggs, the player will obtain the bad ending; where the box under the Christmas tree is empty, and Mama Tattletail kills the player (implying that the ritual has failed), ending the game and rolling the credits. The good ending occurs if the player collects all 22 eggs, they open their gift on Christmas Day, which is revealed to be the same Baby Talking Tattletail the player retrieved when opening their present early. The Talking Tattletail will then proceed to give the player a series of gifts such as its birth tag and a golden flashlight. The player will then need to open the door of their mother's room and wake her up, which triggers a white screen. The game ends with the Talking Tattletail saying "Thank you", along with the player's mother yawning. Development The game was published under the name of the in-universe fictional toy company named Waygetter Electronics. In reality, the team was led by game designer Ben Esposito, and consisted of character designer/co-developer Geneva Hodgson along with lead programmer Tom Astle. Cartoonist Ryann Shannon also stars as the voice of Talking Tattletail.